Ins Agents. Why Bottom 10% Earn $27,430. Top 10% Earn $128,070?

[kgmom219]

Its all of these.

1. Agents who have been in business less than 3 years
2. The 95% who drop out before hitting year 3
3. The amount of write off's available.
4. The sick, the lame, the lazy

I will say this though...after 3 or 4 years of full time, if you aren't making over $100K, you need to figure out what you are doing wrong.

 

[Bevo]

The sick, the lame, the lazy

This could be a cool movie title.

 

[achaffee]

The lower end of the spectrum has to be licensed CSR or bad agents.

 

[entrep1776]

This could be a cool movie title.

The sick, the lame, the lazy

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

 

[kgmom219]

This could be a cool movie title.

According to my veteran daddy, its a Marine Corp term for anyone not on the front line.

 

[entrep1776]

This is what all those "never cold call again" and "referrals only" training books are missing! They view cold-calling as an act of desperation, when the reality is that you're offering your professional help and expertise.

You just need to get out of your own way to do it.

Thanks for insightful post. Did you write it just for this thread? good stuff

really like this:
reality is that you're offering your professional help and expertise.

 

[KOC Agent]

According to my veteran daddy, its a Marine Corp term for anyone not on the front line.

Semper Fi to your Dad!

 

[aikenhealth]

Insurance in America is a moving mosaic especially health insurance you've got to keep moving with the flow - keep adding new products keep looking for new ways to bring your clients more benefits that will really help them and not just help you as an agent and I have found if you become an advocate for the consumer and really try to help them save money and give the resources to educate them in what they have bought from you -you will always write business. I could never imagine being stuck in a captive position things in America are just changing too fast

 

[jboussea]

I will tell you EXACTLY why that is:

DEPENDENCE: I don't know how you grew up, but when I was a kid, if I wanted something, my choices were: do chores around the house to earn it, wait for Christmas or your birthday, or do without. I always had sufficient for my needs, but I didn't necessarily always have what I wanted.

INDEPENDENCE: As a kid, we probably couldn't wait to become an adult with our own money to make our own choices and do whatever we wanted. (Heck, once you're 18, you can get a credit card and spend OTHER people's money and buy whatever you wanted.) But you didn't have to ask someone else for permission anymore.

Prospecting can feel like you're going back to being "dependent". Particularly if you don't feel you have a unique selling proposition, you can feel like you're a kid again... "professionally begging" LOTS of people (not just your parents)... and every 'no' feels more like a personal pain against your own internal embarrassment that 'in order to make the big money, you have to do what you feel is beneath you'. You certainly don't feel 'independent'.

UNDERSTANDING SELF-SABOTAGE: This is why producers stop doing what works, why the goal is to 'stop prospecting', and why there is a "pain of rejection". It's not hearing 'no'. It's the fact that you FEEL like everyone else gets to determine whether or not you get paid today or not = feeling dependent and not able to determine your own future... unlike at a "job" where at least you get a steadier paycheck, right?

Ever wonder why people stop prospecting? It's because they finally feel "independent" enough.

Ever wonder why people want to work referrals instead of prospecting? It's so they can feel "independent" and not feel "dependent".

It's your own self-talk and valuing independence that gets in the way... and we can't fix that until you have something new to think about.

In Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, we learn where you REALLY are in your effectiveness.

INTERDEPENDENCE: Look at habits 4, 5, and 6.
4 - Think Win-Win: This must be at the core of your prospecting message and intent.
5 - Seek first to understand, then to be understood: This is all about doing a good fact-find.
6 - Synergize: Make your solutions better than what they already have.

This is what we are all about as sales-people: Interdependence... not dependence.

Think about Donald Trump (as a business man, not as a politician). Could you imagine anything making him feel "dependent" when he gets on the phone to call someone? Could you imagine him making a deal where both parties couldn't both 'win' on some level? (Hey, he did write "The Art of the Deal.")

You can't fix your thoughts overnight. But at least, when you think that you're tired of this gig, you can realize that you desire independence, and that desire is hindering you from doing what you need to be doing, because you think that prospecting is a state of 'dependence'.

This is what all those "never cold call again" and "referrals only" training books are missing! They view cold-calling as an act of desperation, when the reality is that you're offering your professional help and expertise.

You just need to get out of your own way to do it.

The time and effort you put into these posts and just helping forum members in general is remarkable. We come to expect it so I don't think we appreciate it as much as we should.

 

[jdeasy]

From:
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/sales/mobile/insurance-sales-agents.htm
The lowest 10 percent earned less than $27,430, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $128,070

Another interesting:Job Outlook, 2014-24 9% (Faster than average)

Already thread that discusses why agents fail probably little similar to this.

Curious about reasons/behaviors why some agents make $25k. Others make $125k?

It has less to do with how hard agents work than with getting with a proven system and being coachable.

And it's not just CSR's making the low end. There's many so called independent agents in that low end.

I know a guy that could be a terrific agent. But he's failed out with most life IMO's. Whether term or FE. Not because of work ethic, he's a working fool. But he won't listen. He thinks it's luck that other agents make sales off the same leads he can't. He does quite well in the MA field. But that's not selling.

We had a lady on our Friday call and it's obvious she's not going to make it. She already knows too much to help. Said she's been in the business 30 years. I don't know how she did in other fields but she is not going to make it FE. But to hear her describe her work week it has nothing to do with not working hard.

If an agent will chose their field and then go to work with agents that are successful in that field and just do what the successful agents are doing, they will make it.

When I got into this business I knew absolutely nothing about selling. Not just life insurance, nothing about selling period. And I knew less about life insurance.

But I accepted that fact and followed the system I was taught to the letter. I hated parts of that system and thing I was taught to say to prospects. But I did it anyway because I didn't know any other way.

It worked. Much to my surprise I made sales saying those things I hated.

Over time I developed my own system and I dropped the things I didn't like saying. But 14 years later there's still parts of that first system that I still use.

Had I been like that lady on our call Friday I would not have sold out to what I was being taught and I would be doing something else now.